SYDNEY, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto aims to boost iron ore output by 15 percent this year after production in 2012 climbed to 253 million tonnes, beating its own guidance, as resurgent Chinese demand drives a price recovery.

Rio Tinto, the world’s second-biggest producer behind Brazil’s Vale, has stuck to an aggressive expansion plan in iron ore driven by the hope of top buyer China underpinning prices.

“Markets remain volatile, but our business continues to perform well,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Tom Albanese said in the company’s fourth-quarter production report.

Iron ore prices have soared more than 80 percent since September as Chinese steel mills -- the single biggest buyers of seaborne-traded ore -- returned to the market on signs of a recovery in the Chinese economy.

Benchmark prices hit a 15-month high of $158.50 a tonne last week, as China’s iron ore imports topped 70 million tonnes for the first time in December helped by a resurgent economy and a cold snap that cut local production.

Iron ore prices have started to retract, however, suggesting a peak in the recent cycle, though analysts are not expecting a return to sub-$100 a tonne levels that could threaten production from more marginal producers.

Rio Tinto stands to benefit the most from a healthy market for ore, given its sub-$30 per tonne average production costs and heavy weighting to the sector versus its other business units.

A $10 per tonne rise in the iron ore price can increase Rio’s full-year earnings by more than 10 percent.

UBS is forecasting a drop in Rio Tinto’s earnings before interest and tax to $13 billion in 2012 from $15.3 billion in 2011 after iron ore prices came under pressure for most of last year.

In the last month, iron ore has rebounded by about a third, although a further rally will hinge on whether Chinese demand outpaces the rise in global supply this year.

Rio Tinto is targeting an annual production rate of 290 million tonnes by the end of 2013 before lifting output to 360 million tonnes in 2015 pending board approval. The tonnage also includes output from the company’s iron ore mines in Canada.

It said it had most board approvals in place for the next phase of its expansion work to take output to 360 million tonnes.